The Ghana Armed Forces, GAF, has stated that Flight Sergeant Nicholas Owusu Frimpong acted unprofessionally by discharging his rifle at a public place indiscriminately.
According to GAF, his conduct is against the service regulations.
Suspect, Flight Sergeant Nicholas Owusu Frimpong has been arrested and detained after he was captured on video firing several shots of a firearm at the A&C shopping centre purportedly to welcome the New Year 2022.
Police have said his arrest was done in collaboration with the Military Police.
Speaking to Citi News, the Acting Director of the Department of Public Relations of the Ghana Armed Forces, Commander Andy La-Anyane, said appropriate sanctions will be meted out to the suspect if found culpable to serve as a deterrent to others.
According to him, the suspect acted unprofessionally by discharging his rifle indiscriminately at a public place.
He thus assured Ghanaians that the Military High Command has taken the issue seriously and is waiting for the outcome of the investigations for the appropriate sanctions to be applied.
“The Military High Command takes this particular incident seriously because it is unprofessional for a soldier to go to a public place and fire his rifle indiscriminately.”
“So the Command is waiting for the outcome of the investigation by the military police and then the necessary sanctions will be applied to serve as a deterrent to others.”
Meanwhile, the Bureau for Public Safety (BPS), wants the military officer to be handed over to the Ghana Police Service for interrogation and prosecution.
According to the Chief of Party of the Bureau, Nana Yaw Akwada, the nature of the conduct under investigation should be dealt with by a competent court of jurisdiction and not through the internal disciplinary procedure of the Ghana Armed Forces.
“While we are happy about his arrest, we expect the said gentleman to be in the custody of the police because at the time of the incident, the guy was not in uniform and also did that in a public space, and we are not told whether he was on any assignment.”
“So to that extent, we don’t know why he should be handed over to the GAF for internal action. This gentleman should rather be in the custody of the police for prosecution.”